90 seconds at 9 am with BNZ

90 seconds at 9 am with BNZ: Goldman Sachs pays US$15.4b in bonuses; US$45b worth of US-China trade deals; Greek default warning

20th Jan 11, 8:59am by Gareth Vaughan

Gareth Vaughan details the key news overnight in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand.

Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs reported a more than 50% drop in fourth quarter profit to US$2.39 billion with clients buying and selling fewer shares, bonds and other securities against a backdrop of the European debt crisis, regulatory changes and economic uncertainty.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs said 2010 staff bonuses fell 5% to US$15.4 billion. That’s equivalent to 39% of the firm’s revenue, and is enough to pay all 35,700 employees US$430,700 each.

The United States and China have reached trade deals worth US$45 billion at the start of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the US. The agreements include China pledging to spend US$19 billion on 200 Boeing aircraft for delivery over the next three years. US officials estimate the Boeing deal will support 100,000 American jobs.

Other deals involve Honeywell, Caterpillar and Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Combined, the deals are expected to support about 235,000 American jobs, according to US officials. By agreeing to these deals China seems to have made some effort to answer criticism of it in the US, which had an estimated US$275 billion trade deficit with China last year.

In Europe Lars Feld, an economic adviser to the German government, has told a German newspaper that Germany should set money aside to prepare for a debt default by Greece. Feld’s comments come as the European Union continues to battle with a debt crisis that started in Greece, hit Ireland hard and threatens Portugal and Spain.

Greece has already received a bailout package, 110 billion euros last year from the EU and International Monetary Fund.

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8 Comments

by muzza | 20th Jan 11, 9:19am 1295468390

Meanwhile life goes on in Aoteoroa. See that a local newspaper in Tauranga reports property prices shot up in December to a higher median (not average) than back in 2007. Median price increased last month by $50,000 to $379,500 on 84 sales- there were a further 49 sales at Mount Maunganui at median of $410,000

by Nicholas Arrand | 20th Jan 11, 9:29am 1295468957

Ah, but...some areas were down about 10%..

"Mount Maunganui and Papamoa, where... the median failed to better the $440,000 median of December 2009...The number of sales made in the coastal strip also dropped sharply, from 75 in November to 49 last month. In the Western Bay country, the median house price fell from $405,000 in November to $367,500, but the figure was slightly better than the district's December 2009 median of $365,000."

http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/business/news/late-lift-for-tauranga-house-prices/3937517/

by Didge | 20th Jan 11, 9:20am 1295468457

Systems in nature provide insights to complex financial sysyems

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12228065

by David B | 20th Jan 11, 10:25am 1295472356

Thanks for that link, Didge. Very interesting. I shall go off and read the Nature article.

by muzza | 20th Jan 11, 10:01am 1295470914

Yes, coastal holiday homes over at Mount/Papamoa and along Western Bay coast at places like Omokoroa will account for variance from Tauranga

by Giles | 21st Jan 11, 2:10am 1295529008

RE:

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs said 2010 staff bonuses fell 5% to US$15.4 billion. That’s equivalent to 39% of the firm’s revenue, and is enough to pay all 35,700 employees US$430,700 each.

Please don't help perpetuate the myth that all employees of these 'mega banks' get anything like this sort of bonus. Either don't state it in such a way at all or qualify the statement. Say somethiing like, 'enough to pay the people at the top multimillion dollar bonuses and the rest a far more modest amount'. Remeber these entities used to be actual partnerships, the whole bonus idea is a left over from an earlier time. As partnerships they did not share out the 'bonus' much further than to the actual partners themselves. At the moment the bankers at the top of these entities are working very hard not to disclose how much they are really 'taking off the top'. This averaging that seems to go on in all reporting of the matter plays right into their hands as we end up with a number that real people can comprehend and as it is the only number around we use it to make assumptions about the bonus spread that are probably not realistic.

by Wolly | 21st Jan 11, 7:36am 1295548591

So what's really going in Wellington?

"The key difference between the motivation of the banking mob and the political mob....., is that the former prefers a monetary policy that allows them to profit from the economic activity of the population in a subtle and insidious manner. A policy of open inflation conducted by the political class is the path to hyperinflation, the breakdown of the division of labor, and the destruction of the monetary system itself.

Unlike the political mob, the banking class is savvy enough to recognize policies that will lead to mass inflation and the death of the monetary system from which it parasitically profits."

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article25706.html

Hey it's worth a read...helps you understand Bolly's reasoning...and to see what the banks are up to...how they are the ones pulling the strings and the Beehive puppets are doing the 'fantango' on the 9th floor.

by Wolly | 21st Jan 11, 7:53am 1295549616

And down in Dunedin the rate payers can look forward to.....higher rates..what else!

"Dunedin city councillors this week grapple with the 2011-12 budget, with its forecast 6.1% rates increase." ODT

Hey Alan...give them a phone call...tell em inflation is less than 2%...Alan?....hey where'd he rush off to?